James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Saadi
Capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away.
Foolish people are a hundred times more averse to meet with wise people than wise people are to meet with foolish.
Forgiveness is commendable, but apply not ointment to the wound of an oppressor.
God gives sleep to the bad, in order that the good may be undisturbed.
He who learns and makes no use of his learning is a beast of burden with a load of books.
He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life, is like a man who labours in his fields but does not sow.
I fear God, and, next to God, I chiefly fear him who fears Him not.
In every bone there is marrow, and within every jacket there is a man.
Inflict not on an enemy every injury in your power, for he may afterwards become your friend.
Kindness out of season destroys authority.
Knowledge is a perennial spring of wealth,… and of itself is riches.
Liberty is of more value than any gifts; and to receive gifts is to lose it. Be assured that men most commonly seek to oblige thee only that they may engage thee to serve them.
Man is, beyond dispute, the most excellent of created beings, and the vilest animal is a dog; but the sages agree that a grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man.
Poverty snatches the reins out of the hands of piety.
Scorn to trample upon a worm or to sneak to be an emperor.
Speak in such a manner between two enemies, that, should they afterwards become friends, you may not be put to the blush.
That which is not allotted the hand cannot reach, and what is allotted will find you wherever you may be.
The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; and the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
The belly is chains to the hands and fetters to the feet. He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.
The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.
The heart is like a musical instrument of many strings, all the chords of which require putting in harmony.
The sea does not contain all the pearls, the earth does not enclose all the treasures, and the flint-stone does not enclose all the diamonds, since the head of man encloses wisdom.
The traveller without observation is a bird without wings.
There is safety in solitude.
They asked Lucman the fabulist, “From whom did you learn manners?” He answered, “From the unmannerly.”
To receive gifts is to lose liberty.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
What is not allotted the hand cannot reach, and what is allotted will find you wherever you may be.
When a mean wretch cannot vie with another in virtue, out of his wretchedness he begins to slander.
When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
Wherever the tree of beneficence takes root, it sends forth branches beyond the sky.
Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practise it, is as one who ploughs but does not sow.
Whosoever hath not patience, neither doth he possess philosophy.